I’ll definitely be wanting to play another game, but not until the current one has ended.
Colin
Tsk Tsk Dragon Lord. Not very friendly of you. Trying to sneak in and get an artifact cheap. You thought Celedhring was hidden and could succeed with that challenge didn’t you? Maybe you’ll have better luck with the next artifact on your list.
Well i wasnt going to announce to the world that youve managed to get your grubby litle mits on Tinculin but seeing as you wish to let everyone know your achievements who am i to stop you, but at least i do know where Dino is this turn.
Dragon dude.
Then that makes 2 of us…so its a 3 way fight for the cloak then 
Yes I know who else is also in the hex 
The Cardolan knowingly associates with the pre-eminent deceiver of our time and then has the gall to claim innocence. The line between hypocrisy and outright self-delusion seems to have grown quite thin.
The Cardolan leadership made a concious decision to consort with, (and indeed to actively support), a nation which was willing to use treachery and subterfuge to achieve it’s ends. Previous messages have made it clear that Cardolan knew about the Witch King’s duplicitous nature. (Ineed, there was apparently intense concern that the Witch King might even have dishonorable intentions towards Cardolan itself.) And knowing this, what was Cardolan’s reaction to the knowledge that the Witch King was a miscreant who’s word was nothing but a disposable tool of statecraft? Was it to contact the impending victims of this most devious of Nazgul and forge an alliance to rid the world of such a treacherous leader? No. The self-aggrandizing King of Cardolan decided to join with the first of Sauron’s servants, throw his full support behind the betrayer, and attempt to gain as much as possible from his ally’s underhandedness.
Now, after knowingly gaining from the Witch King’s deception, he claims that he is completely innocent of deception himself. Such flawed assertations can only show the world one of two things. It either shows that, despite his protestations of innocence, the King of the Cardolan is willing to consort with and profit from the another’s treachery regardless of the shame and disgrace it brings upon his people, or it shows that the King of the Cardolan is a fool. I, for one, do not believe it is the latter.
Arfanhil,
STILL King of Rhudaur
Dear King Arfanil,
There are few things I find as endearing as unconscionable bores, and the way you have been throwing your title around has started to tickle my fancy. As such, I have decided that you shall keep it even when ‘still’ has changed its part of speech.
Which King of Angmar? MURAZOR!
To players in 68 (and neutral games in the future):
This looks like chaotic, dilpomatic fun and mayhem at the same time!
In trolling through all the “he said, she said” posts here, a thought came to mind that may ease some of the diplomacy required. For any of you who have
played World Wide Battle Plan, a basic PBM/PBEM wargame that starts out with 20-30 players that are all neutral to each other, there is a standard
agreeement used by all players - the NAP (non-agression pact). To ease some
diplomatic strain, you simply message a person asking to agree to a NAP.
Early on, most of these will be agreed to as either: 1) thru x amount of turns, can be reupped if both agree; 2) a turn to turn basis, requiring a 1-turn warning for either party to end it (ie, you send a person after you recieve your turn results that he would like to break the NAP, giving the other player that coming turn to prepare as it will last thru that current turn).
This allows players some time early on to build up without worrying about all their borders; it allows a simple way to contact players not in your immediate area and make sure you need not worry about them as well. In addition, with this protocol in place, players will have email proof of offer/acceptance of a NAP on file and when a player reneges on one, the whole community knows and that player will soon top the not to be trusted list in all future games.
As the game progresses, you can see what is unfolding and up the NAP’s to full alliances or let them lapse as the need dictates.
I would offer that a basic NAP agreement for ME should mean - !) no army or character attacks/actions on any of the other players armies, characters, or pop centers; 2) no armies allowed to move onto other persons pop centers.
Any of these can be modified or added to be mutual agreement, obviously.
Does this sound like anything you players in 68 might use to help you out?
Cheers !
-> Yes. Cardolan freely admits that we now consort with the Witch King.
-> Yes. Cardolan freely admits that we had grave doubts as to whether the Witch King would be our enemy or ally thru the first several fortnights of this war.
-> No. Cardolan did not claim “innocence”. Cardolan claims honesty and integrity. There is no innocence in war.
-> No. Cardolan did not decieve. Cardolan told Noldo that we would be an enemy of Noldo and Noldo’s allies’. Cardolan told them prior to first movement of any forces in this war. Cardolan attempted to establish communication with Rhudaur, but there was no response to our missives. Something about messages being lost…
-> No. Cardolan do not believe there to be any imperative to inform our enemies of the intentions of other nations toward them. Nor do we think any rational person would so believe.
-> Yes. Noldo has been spreading all kinds of lies and deceptions.
-> Yes. Elrond should sail west now.
-> Yes. Arfanhil is still alive.
-> Yes. Arfanhil will be very still, very soon.
-> Yes. Arfanhil has lost almost all of his tax base. So he will be a poor king in addition to being a “still king”.
Don,
So when your NAP runs out and you then start…“losing messages”…the other guy really simply must assume you’re intentions are ill towards him… Sounds more like an excuse to vilify those who don’t follow the acceptable passive-agressive dogma than any kind of practicle solution. In ME, us neutrals create NAP’s all the time, between neutrals, assure allegiances, etc. But it’s more of a wild west kind of diplomacy where we don’t have to qualify our speech with “proper” acronyms, and hey, if you trust me you trust me, if you don’t, you don’t… I don’t see a “process” as necessary, necessarily…
Brad the Neutral for Ren68
Yeah, Don, what if you want to play Hitler and break your NAP without notice? Are you accused of being non-British or something?
It’s just an idea to try and simplify one aspect of diplomacy in this variant. Of course, Ed, you could do the proverbial backstab, it’s a part of gaming, always has been. I’m just pointing out a method for diplomacy used in another somewhat similar game sitiuation that works well. From the threads above, it appears to me that many players have spent a lot of time in trying to set up some kind of relations with others, and some of it has proved fruitless, ambigious, and time consuming. If you were able to set up a simple NAP with perhaps 3-5 players, couldn’t it improve diplomacy in those 3 areas?
As for the saving the posts and “losing them”, I would suggest you just right down any NAP agreements on a piece of paper or word file with your game folder, it’s not that hard. No one has to reveal any agreements, or they can, depending on if they think it will help them or not. And if you do get caught backstabbing a basic agreement such as this more than once, I would hope that other players take note of that for all future dealings.
Don
Humm, didn’t Hitler break seven internatinal treaties before Neville Chamberlin got angry? That is who I want to play against, Neville Chamberlin.
An unprovoked attack upon the poor Corsair fleet sitting in International Waters.
All should note that the Gondorians issued attack orders whilst the Corsairs Captains were still sleeping. We never had any intention of sailing into Gondor and those in Dol Amroth seemed to believe that I was allied with those in Minas Tirith.
Someone has obviously been spreading mis-information and it would appear the Souther Gondorians believed them over their Southern Brethren.
South Gondor may claim foul over North Gondor’s actions but then they commit the same act themselves. Make of this what you will.
Corsairs
International waters? 2128? The hex next to my capital? I suppose my capital hex would have been declared an “Open City” next …
No warning from the Corsairs saying “I am passing through”.
I ask all of you … what would you have done? I certainly don’t regard my action as unprovoked.
At any rate, I have been more than ahppy to accept The Corsair’s proposal of a 5 turn Non-Aggression pact between our nations.
Celdrahil
Ahh… An NAP between SG and Umbar. Is that how long it’ll take the Corsairs to build an army and march it to Linhir…? Hmmm… Likely longer. Well, someone must think they’re winning something here…darned if I can tell. Each to their own, hope you’re enjoying yourselves…
Ren the Immediate
I just want to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
If your really lucky Santa may pay you a visit…if your really unluncky it will be Din paying you a visit.
Festive greatings to one and all.
Ian
LR
I’m feeling lucky… I hope
Merry Xmas everyone…
Michael / Eothraim
You’ve inspired my camping attempts. “Din Sucks”, “Uvatha Blows”, and “Lommy Goes D[censored]”. So, if I get to run the 555’s first, does that make me…lucky…? 
Ren the Un…
Cloudy really doesn’t like me. That’s the Military Juggernaut Cloud Lord, by the way. I hope he’s killing someone somewhere else, this is getting silly…
Ren the Unliked
Not exactly, but then again, I was wondering who would finally wander into Carach Angren…